and photos for the back - long on smiles!

I don't know about you but I love putting photos on the backs of quilts. It helps to complete the story the quilt tells, who lovingly made it, who was the loved one who received it. In this case, the quilt is for Wyatt and it is made by the team of Leiner and Newcomer, both nee Allmendinger, mother and daughter, cross-stitcher and quilter, Grandmother and Aunt Boo.

When we have all gone on to what comes after, someone will see this quilt back and recognize the love between the people it binds.

Another night of sewing. Almost finished with the back. Tomorrow, maybe, it will be ready to embroider! Gotta sleep now....

G'nite.

Working on the back

After working like a crazy woman all weekend, I took Monday night off and I'm getting the back ready tonight. I will start doing the embroidered signatures and such tomorrow. Becky, of course did the fantastic cross-stitch. Thanks, puddin!

Time for sleep. More tomorrow...

The top is done!

The goal for the weekend was to finish the quilt top and now, Sunday afternoon at 3PM, the top is done. Here it is! Please note the baby footprints walking around the zoo and finally exiting in the upper right hand corner - Becky you are so clever! A few oops noticed but nothing too glaring and they just prove I am human!

Now onto the back and hopefully, quilting by the end of the week.

There she goes again, breaking the rules!

I know, I know, I KNOW! my daughter, Jamie told me I had to make the wedding quilt for her and my fantastic son-in-law, Jeff first BEFORE I started the baby quilt for Wyatt Zachery, my new grandson they gave me but I could not resist the urge. I plead "baby quilt fever." Besides, I'm the artist and I get to do whatever I want, however the muse leads me.

So here are the first two blocks of the baby quilt. You will remember Becky did the cross stitching. Isn't she fantastic? I cut all the block pieces last night - finishing up with that and this first bit of stitching by 2 AM. Actually, the cutting was done by 11 PM and we were in bed by midnight but I just laid there wide awake, itching to get stitching. I resisted for 30 minutes but gave into the urge and got up about 12:30, went downstairs and started the piecing. I soon discovered I did not have enough animal print for all 35 blocks so on the way to my doctor's appointment this morning, I hit the local Joann Fabrics, and while I could not find the exact same fabric, I found two other really cool animal prints to use. You will see them with the next posting.

There are 35 cross stitch blocks on the front of this quilt and a few more on the back. The pattern is called Child's Play. Now here is the kicker - I hope to have this quilt finished by August 3 (three weeks from yesterday) in order to take it out to California with us when we visit the kids and Wyatt August 4-9. CAN SHE DO IT? WILL SHE HAVE TO GIVE UP SLEEP AND ALL OTHER NON - QUILT RELATED ACTIVITIES?
I have already put George on notice that it is all quilt, all the time for a few weeks here but he is training for a biking event so he is fine with my ambitious plans.

Tune in and I will keep you posted on the progress. I hope to have the quilt top done by the end of the weekend.

Gotta go...

We say goodbye to a new friend

Tomorrow we say goodbye to a new friend, Claudia Glasshauser from Chemnitz, Germany who has been here with us in Greensburg for seven weeks doing an education internship at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art. We had a great time showing her Southwestern Pennsylvania. She was also able to visit Niagara Falls and Washington DC while she was here. Next she joins her boyfriend in Miami for two weeks on the beach!

Have fun, Claudia and thank you for being our guest and friend this summer. Vinnie and Buster will miss you and we will too! We will keep in touch.

A bicycling kilt for my sweetie!

My husband George was going to get arrested for indecent exposure one of these days, or at least, that's what his bicycling buddies thought as he blythly changed out of his bicycling gear into street clothes in parking lots all over southwestern Pennsylvania. To solve this dilemna and keep the public's tender sensibilities from being totally affronted, he decided a bicycling kilt was just the ticket. When it was time to change out after a long, hot ride, he could wrap a kilt around his torso, slip off the bicycling short and slip on the street shorts, offending no one. We looked online but sports kilts were horrendously expensive. Who knew this would become so popular? So I (silly me) volunteered to make a bicycle kilt.

Off to the attic I went to find that nice piece of grey worsted wool I picked up at the Goodwill some time in the last few years. Then to the fabric shop to purchase a pattern. I was all ready to start cutting when George walked through the room, picked up the pattern and said, "what is this?"

"A Kilt pattern." I responded, scissors in hand and lovely wool laid out for the slaughter.

"This is a costume pattern," he replied, puzzled. "I want a genuine kilt, not a costume kilt."

Deep sigh... put the scissor down....

So off to the internet we go again, looking for authentic kilt patterns. Of course we found one and at this time, I want to digress a bit and give my opinion of patterns available on the internet.

First, I did not know these animals existed until Jamie had me making all kinds of baby things from patterns she found on the 'net. Depending on the skill of the author, they can be easy to follow and therefore, just great! or badly written and confusing as hell. Of course, this was the case with the genuine kilt pattern we found.

As with every project, I am most confident when I know my subject and the steps it takes to accomplish my goals. ENTER HUGE CONFIDENCE CRISIS AT THIS POINT. Consequently, I dragged my feet on the project. At one point, George asked me, "are you ever going to finish my kilt?" and then another time, "when are you going to finish my kilt?"

In my defense, I want to point out that in this time period, I went to a museum store conference, married off a daughter, hosted my mother for two weeks at our house, and opened up our home to our German guest and now friend, Claudia for seven weeks. To say the least, I was a busy woman. But truly, I just didn't know what I was doing, the pattern wasn't helping, working with wool in 80-90 degree weather was not fun and I was scared! And the frosting on the whole dismal affair was that I would not let myself QUILT until I finished the DAMN KILT!

So, now it is done and quite beautiful. A great deal of it is hand sewn: the darts, the buttonholes, the leather straps (thank you PJ Zimmerlink, preparator at the Westmmoreland Museum of American Art for making the tool to bore the holes in the leather for me). I wish the buttonholes were more expertly made but overall, I am very proud of it.

This last picture is a side view and shows the various parts: the smooth fringed (by hand!) apron, the knife pleated back, the beautiful leather straps and buckles.

I love you, my sweetheart. Please wear this in good health and stop flashing the neighbors!

I love my job!

While I love my quilting obsession and would quilt everyday if I could, I am also one of those people who has to work for a living, you know, a paying job, a working stiff. I am fortunate enough to work for the Westmoreland Museum of American Art as their Museum Shop Manager. One of the perks of this great job is selling all the great work made by local artists. One of them is my (now) good friend Ben Eisaman, a potter from Youngwood, Pennsylvania. Ben owns and operates SIMPLE THINGS, a pottery and gift shop, and I met him a few years ago as I was browsing his shop. I asked him to consign with us here at the museum shop and his pottery is a very popular seller for us. Ben is now pursuing a fine arts degree and pretty soon he will be too busy to bring me his great pottery! Here are some pictures!